Cold Open

It’s just after midnight on August 13th, 1906, in Brownsville, Texas.

Mayor Fred Combe races down the street in a horse-drawn wagon. He’s headed for the town’s main strip.

The humid night air whips his face and every now and then, he clutches his hat so it doesn’t fly off.

As he approaches the center of town, he sees saloons shuttered and hotel doors locked. Minutes before, men had been drinking together after a long day’s work. But now, every window's curtains are drawn, except for just enough to reveal curious, spying eyes.

When Fred’s wagon reaches a group of huddled police officers in the street, he brings his horses to a stop and hops down from the carriage.

Fred pushes through the cluster of men and spots one officer clutching his bloody arm. He asks what happened, but before the man can answer, Fred notices something else: the body of a young bartender, lifeless on the ground. Combe bows his head, removes his hat, and holds it against his heart.

After a moment, he looks up and asks again: what happened here? The men all rush to speak at once, accusing Army soldiers stationed on the outskirts of town. The 25th Infantry is an all-Black unit, and the police say they saw dark faces lit up behind the gunfire.

Fred is confused—the 25th Infantry is under a strict curfew tonight. He and their commanding officer set the curfew themselves. Racial tensions in Brownsville are already high and the curfew is in place to prevent violence.

Along the street, doors start to creak open, and men step out from nearby buildings. They gaze at the scene with stunned eyes and make slow paces toward Fred.

He asks them what they saw, and they tell him the same thing as the police: soldiers from the 25th Infantry came into town and fired on the men milling about. Everyone rushed for safety, but two of them didn’t make it in time: one, the policeman, and the other the slain bartender.

As more men emerge from their hiding spots, Fred hears the same story over and over. Some people even say they found Army bullet casings and footprints of military boots at the scene.

Whatever happened, it’s Fred’s job to make sure no one else gets hurt and justice is served. But it will soon become clear that the mystery of tonight's event is too big for the Mayor to solve alone.

The incident known as “The Brownsville Affair” will go down in U.S. Army history. Some will see the eventual outcome as a righteous act of justice. Others will see it as a dark stain on the fabric of the nation itself. But one thing is certain: over 150 lives were changed forever after the deadly shooting in Brownsville that night, on August 13th, 1906.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 13th, 1906: The Brownsville Affair.

Act One: The Spark

It’s the afternoon of August 12th, 1906, in Brownsville, Texas, a few hours before the deadly shooting in town.

Lon Evans, a longtime local, sits in his parlor, fanning himself with the day’s paper. The thick humid air seeps through the house’s wooden frame. Brownsville is on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico at the far southern tip of Texas, but not even the breeze can cool a summer day like this one.

Lon unfolds the paper and a bead of sweat falls from his brow and lands on the page. A few words are smudged, but there’s nothing in the story that Lon doesn’t already know - another Black man has been killed in Texas. It’s just one more in a series of recent lynchings in the state.

Although it’s been 40 years since the end of the American Civil War, the social, economic, and political upheaval of those days is still felt here. The end of slavery upended the agrarian economy in Texas, leading to a shift from plantation-based agriculture to sharecropping and tenant farming. Many white Texans resent the changes that they believe have been forced upon them. And there’s been fierce resistance to any attempts at racial integration. Vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan have become more popular and more active.

Brownsville itself is not an integrated town—all 6,000 residents are white, or at least they were until recently. Two weeks ago, the all-Black 25th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army arrived at the nearby Fort Brown. They’ve come to provide a military presence and maintain order in this border town.

Some of the Black soldiers in the unit fought with the U.S. President himself, Theodore Roosevelt, during the Spanish-American War eight years ago. But despite their heroics on the battlefield, these soldiers are not warmly welcomed in Brownsville. They’re confronted with racist abuse from locals and many businesses refuse to serve them. Most of the locals won’t be happy until the 25th Infantry Regiment is gone.

Lon Evans is no exception. He doesn’t want Black soldiers in his town, and he doesn’t much mourn the victim of the latest lynching he’s read about in the newspaper. So, he folds the paper back up and tosses it to the side. Then he leans back in his chair and closes his eyes.

He’s just starting to doze off when he hears a commotion outside. It takes Lon a moment to realize he’s not dreaming. But when he hears his wife’s panicked voice carry across the yard, his eyes snap open.

Lon gets up out of his chair just in time to catch his wife as she stumbles through the front door. Her eyes are wide and fearful. Ushering her behind him, Lon goes to the door and peers out to see what’s going on. But no one's there. So, he shuts the door behind him and sinks to the floor next to his wife, trying to calm her.

She’s out of breath and sobbing. Frantically, she wipes her hair from her sweaty forehead and Lon can only hold her and ask what’s happened. Eventually, her crying subsides and she’s able to get her story out. Lon’s wife says that she was just outside their gate when someone ambushed her.

She was unsaddling a horse when a man came out of nowhere, grabbed her by the hair, and threw her to the ground. She yelled for help, but it all happened so fast—no one had time to come to her aid before the assailant ran away.

Lon asks who it was, but his wife doesn’t know. She didn’t recognize him. But even though much of what happened was a blur, she’s certain about one thing - her attacker was a Black soldier.

Lon feels his face grow hot and anger surge through him. He tells his wife to stay put. And then, he grabs his rifle and storms out of the house. He’s determined to get justice for his wife and he knows exactly where he’ll go. This isn’t the first time he’s heard of white residents having trouble with the new soldiers stationed at the fort outside town. But if Lon Evans has anything to do with it, it’ll be the last.

Act Two: The Aftermath

It’s the afternoon of August 12th, 1906 in Brownsville, Texas, just a few minutes after Lon Evans stormed out of his house with a rifle.

Brownsville’s Mayor, Fred Combe, is working in his office when the door bangs open and Lon Evans marches in.

Lon’s face is red and contorted in anger. Fred asks him what’s wrong, and Lon says that his wife was just attacked by a Black man, a soldier, right outside their home.

Fred tries to calm him down, but Lon declares he's going to gather a group of men to storm Fort Brown, where the 25th Infantry is based. When Fred can finally get a word in, he tells Lon not to do anything rash. Instead, he tells Lon that he will go to Fort Brown and speak with Major Charles Penrose, who leads the Infantry. Lon seems to accept this. But Mayor Combe can tell he’s itching for revenge.

After Lon Evans leaves, Fred heads immediately to Fort Brown to discuss the issue with Major Penrose. Penrose is white, and Combe thinks they can find a way to prevent more violence in the town. They decide to set an 8 PM curfew for the soldiers. And that way, when night falls, there’ll be no chance of violence between Black soldiers and white townsmen.

After the curfew is agreed to, much of that evening passes without issue. But then, around midnight, rifle fire echoes through the town. When the shooting stops, a police officer is injured, a bartender is dead - many in Brownsville are convinced that members of the 25th Infantry are responsible.

Mayor Combe spends most of the night questioning people about the shooting, but he can’t get a definitive answer about what happened. The best anyone can do is point the finger of blame at the men of the 25th.

So, Fred hops back into his wagon and makes his way to Fort Brown. When he arrives he demands that Major Penrose account for his men’s actions, but Penrose is confused. He heard the gunshots echo all the way from town - but his men were in their barracks at the time, observing the curfew they agreed to earlier.

Fred returns home no closer to establishing what happened. He plans to spend the next day continuing his investigation. But before he gets a chance to question any other witnesses, a group of Brownsville men takes matters into their own hands. Just after sunrise, the men march to Fort Brown. They gather at the entrance and begin yelling abuse, demanding the soldiers to leave town.

When word reaches the Mayor’s office, Fred fears he won’t be able to keep the peace. But at that stage, it’s already out of his hands. The Governor has sent a Texas Ranger to Brownsville to take over the investigation.

And on August 15th, Captain Bill McDonald arrives in town. For over a week, he speaks to nearly every white resident in Brownsville. He hears the same claims Mayor Combe did, except now, people can’t keep their stories straight—accounts differ on how many soldiers were spotted at the scene, and how many bullet casings and footprints were apparently left behind.

But despite all these inconsistencies, Captain McDonald believes the residents. In his opinion, members of the 25th Infantry are guilty of killing the bartender and wounding a police officer. So, after 10 days of investigations, he orders Major Penrose to round up his troops and leave Brownsville.

Once the Infantry is out of town, Captain McDonald submits his report to the local judge and a grand jury. But to everyone’s surprise, the court disagrees with the captain—they decide that there is not sufficient evidence to indict any of the soldiers, and they dismiss the case.

Captain McDonald is incensed. But there’s nothing more he can do. So, he begins packing his things, eager to return home. Before he can leave Brownsville, though, a letter arrives, from President Theodore Roosevelt himself.

In his letter, Roosevelt praises the captain's investigation and his dedication to the truth. Reading the note, Captain McDonald is over the moon and he leaves Brownsville feeling vindicated.

But this presidential letter isn’t the last time Roosevelt speaks on the case. Almost three months after the shooting, Roosevelt makes a shocking announcement. Even though he once served with some of the men in the 25th, he decides to dishonorably discharge over 150 members of the regiment. It’s the first mass discharge in U.S. Army history, and it has dire consequences for the men affected.

Even though none of the soldiers was found guilty by a court of law, the dishonorable discharges mean these men can’t collect their pensions or other veterans’ benefits. And the lingering stigma over the Brownsville affair means that many of the dismissed soldiers struggle to find work and support their families for years after.

There’ll never be another investigation to find out who actually pulled the trigger that night in Brownsville. But more than half a century later, there’ll be a new development in the case that will finally deliver justice for the wronged men of the 25th Infantry.

Act Three: Redemption Day

It’s a crisp morning in February 1973, at Zion Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 67 years after the Brownsville Affair.

87-year-old Dorsie Willis stands at the front of the church. He’s well-known in the community. For 60 years, he's toiled quietly, shining shoes and sweeping barbershop floors. He is a humble man, but today he’s the center of attention.

Dorsie's wife and son stand beside him, glowing with pride. And the pews of the church are packed with military officials, civil rights leaders, community members, and the press.

Dorsie watches as Major General DeWitt Smith steps up to a podium. The crowd falls silent. Smith is holding a certificate and he begins to recount a familiar story in a solemn voice. Dorsie listens to the tale from his own life, one that he can never forget—the wrongful discharge of over 150 Black soldiers in 1906. Dorsie was one of those soldiers – but he’s the last who is still alive.

A few months ago, a congressional investigation cleared the men of the 25th infantry of any wrongdoing in the Brownsville Affair. Afterwards, lawmakers passed a bill reversing the dishonorable discharges.

So now, when Major General Smith finishes his speech, he turns to face Dorsie and hands him a certificate he was holding. It states that his discharge has been changed to “honorable.” Dorsie accepts it with steady hands, his eyes glistening with tears.

Next though, Smith presents Dorsie with a check for $25,000 in back pay, over a $180,000 today. At the end of the ceremony, the congregation erupts in applause. Dorsie looks out over the assemble crowd, feeling a profound sense of closure and justice. The financial restitution is long overdue. And though it can never wipe away the injustice suffered by the soldiers of the 25th Infantry, it is a meaningful recognition of the unfair hardships Dorsie and his comrades endured for decades following the unsolved shooting in Brownsville on August 13th, 1906.

Outro

Next on History Daily. August 14th, 1971. An infamous psychology study into prison brutality begins at Stanford University.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Sarah Batcheller.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.